It looks like the Pakatan Rakyat opposition may be right. Umno is really starting to lose it. Its traditional Malay electorate is beginning to see the party as it is and no longer as it was.
In the past due to its awesome power, Malays flocked to join the party, hoping to tap into its huge gravy train. Spurred by the racial politicking of the top Umno leadership, many ordinary Malays stayed on in the party, even though they knew they were unlikely to make it to the higher ranks. Total membership is said to number 3 million these days, the largest political grouping in the country.
But that may have been the peak for the Malay nationalist party. Not only have Malays become more emancipated by education, many are beginning to feel disgust in place of the trust they once held.
Starting to wise up
Not only was one of its senior officers, Ahmad Sarbaini, the victim of an Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission interrogation, Umno bloggers aligned to top leaders have begun spinning a sex video to suggest moral impropriety on his part.
It is believed to be an attempt take the heat off the MACC and Prime Minister Najib Razak's government. Both are blamed for his sudden death fall during a visit to the MACC headquarters in Cheras.
“Although the blog clearly showed sexual acts, until today there has been no further information over who was involved. As such, it cannot be conclusively said that it involved a Customs staff,” Malaysian Insider reported Customs director-general Mohamed Khalid Yusuf (right) as saying.
“Linking the sex act to Sarbaini’s case, which I cannot even see the link, is a cruel act and an irresponsible one, if it seeks to humiliate a person who has died."
Sex - Umno's antidote and addiction?
But this has been Umno's style. Even in the Teoh Beng Hock case, MACC had tried to insinuate he may have taken his own life due to a love triangle with a housemate.
Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has been hit with sex charges one after another - from accusations he had sodomized his male former worker to having sex with a female prostitute.
PAS deputy president Mat Sabu too has been victimized by allegations of sex scandals, with latest being a 'phone-sex' recording of a conversation that purportedly took place in the early 1990s!
In the Sarbaini case, the video shows a Malay man engaging in sex with a Caucasian woman in what looks like a hotel room. Umno blogger theunspinners.blogspot.com was the first to release the video, claiming the man was a Customs officer while suggesting the woman was a Russian prostitute.
The man in the video is not named, but the blogger links the recording, which is titled Pegawai Kastam Yang Terlampau, to Sarbaini's death while in MACC custody earlier this year.
It appears to be an attempt to tarnish the reputation of the Customs officer ahead of Monday’s verdict in his controversial inquest.
Blackmail and 'fitnah'
Meanwhile, Sarbaini's widow Maziah Manap has refused to be brow-beaten by the sex tape, vowing to get justice for her husband. Like Beng Hock's family, she too had been made an object of ridicule during the inquest by the MACC and its lawyer Shafee Abdullah.
Shafee, who often acts on behalf of Umno and its leaders, had just days ago postulated that Sarbaini fell off the third-floor window in his haste to meet a girlfriend working at Schenker Logistics (M) Sdn Bhd, a Wan Zainalabidin Wan Zaki.
"I am most disappointed and saddened at the accusation made by the MACC. It is a great slander to make such an insinuation," Maziah had said in a statement.
All eyes are now on Monday's verdict. Pundits say the signs are clear, there is more corruption and shady activities within the MACC than outside.
"We certainly hope they are not trying to blackmail Sarbaini's widow into silence and acceptance over the inquest tomorrow," Batu MP Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.
Coincidence at the MACC - two deathfalls in two years
Sarbaini, the assistant director of Selangor Customs, had gone to the MACC building in Cheras to meet his investigating officer over a money-laundering racket in which he had been implicated. Like Beng Hock, who was being interrogated as a witness into an embezzlement case, Sarbaini never made it out of the MACC premises alive.
It is believed Sarbaini fell from the third-floor pantry of the MACC Cheras office. Beng Hock fell from the 14th floor of the MACC Shah Alam building.
Both their families are sure they did not commit suicide and have accused the MACC of foul play. The MACC comes under Najib's direct jurisdiction, but he has done little to rein its officers in.
Beng Hock's body was found in June 2009. Two years later, Sarbaini's body was discovered. Who's next?
